Although library board members joked about being good at doing nothing, they took a small step forward at their meeting Thursday by voting to uphold an ad-hoc committee recommendation to build a south Baton Rouge branch at the proposed Rouzan development.
The recommendation also calls for the East Baton Rouge Parish Library system to tweak its agreement for a land donation at Rouzan, a housing-and-retail complex planned by developer Tommy Spinosa in order to protect itself if Rouzan falls through and the branch property is left with no parking, utility provisions or other surrounding infrastructure.
A lawsuit against the Metro Council set for trial in June could nullify zoning for the traditional neighborhood development, or TND, along Perkins Road. “It’s possible all those arrangements would vanish,” board member Stanford O. Bardwell says. “We could be left without the various support elements.”
Further, the recommendation calls for the board to seek an 18-month extension on a land donation offer at Burbank and West Lee drives that expires in mid-December as a backup site for a south branch. Several people spoke out at the meeting against the location, which is on a floodplain and would require wetlands mitigation. The meeting indicates progress since board members considered budgeting for both branches, at $6 million each and a few miles from each other, in previous talks. That would have endangered funding for a downtown branch renovation.
